Journal
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Volume 7, Issue 8, Pages 2697-2705Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.2895
Keywords
above- and belowground linkage; absorptive roots; leaves; morphological trait; N concentration
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Funding
- National Key Research Project of China [2016YFC0500202]
- Major Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [31290221]
- Doctoral Start-up Fund of Northwest AF University [Z109021625]
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Leaves and absorptive roots (i.e., first-order root) are above- and belowground plant organs related to resource acquisition; however, it is controversy over whether these two sets of functional traits vary in a coordinated manner. Here, we examined the relationships between analogous above- and belowground traits, including chemical (tissue C and N concentrations) and morphological traits (thickness and diameter, specific leaf area and root length, and tissue density) of 154 species sampling from eight subtropical and temperate forests. Our results showed that N concentrations of leaves and absorptive roots were positively correlated independent of phylogeny and plant growth forms, whereas morphological traits between above- and belowground organs varied independently. These results indicate that, different from plant economics spectrum theory, there is a complex integration of diverse adaptive strategies of plant species to above- and belowground environments, with convergent adaptation in nutrient traits but divergence in morphological traits across plant organs. Our results offer a new perspective for understanding the resource capture strategies of plants in adaptation to heterogeneous environments, and stress the importance of phylogenetic consideration in the discussion of cross-species trait relationships.
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